One of those mornings

This morning Peanut had an appointment at Coalition Humane for the "big snip" so at 7:30am I packed a large crate with his bed and a blanket and loaded him up to head to Tacoma. My husband had assured me he had pooped and peed when he was taken out early so I didn't take him for a bathroom run before we left. Mistake.

The stress of being in a crate again and in the car must have gotten to Peanut because halfway to the clinic I smelled a tell-tale smell, and no, it wasn't the Port of Tacoma. Peanut, the little pup who rarely even has accidents in his big ex-pen had pooped in his crate.

When we arrived at the spay/neuter clinic I took a poopy little puppy out of the crate and attempted to clean him and the crate up without getting myself all poopy. Thankfully I had covered the dog bed with the blanked so I was able to just pull the blanket out and the bed and crate were clean. Peanut however, was not clean. We wrestled in the back of the CRV as I used the doggy water bottle and the towel from the doggy car seat to attempt to clean him. Mostly it was his paws that were a mess, because he had stayed standing after he pooped. I had to be very careful that I had no remnants of the clean up job on me before I went inside to do the paperwork.

After I came back to the car to finish the clean up job it reeked horribly. I decided to just throw out the blanket and towel rather than ride with the stink and that definitely helped. Thank goodness for the old towels and the doggie blankies and fleece yardage that gets donated to me for the dogs. With puppies around they always come in handy.

I felt so bad for the little guy. He has a rough day and evening ahead of him. I will be there tomorrow morning at 7:30am to pick him up and take him home for some love and attention. He will come to work with me so I can keep an eye on him and make sure he isn't licking the incision site.

Little Peanut struck gold!

So I had been receiving a couple applications for little Peanut that made me cringe and was getting worried. I needed this sweet little guy in a spot where I wouldn't worry about his future. He needed a dog, and possibly kids to play with. He needed a fenced yard so he could play chase. He needed a home where he'd be fed a nutritious diet of quality dog food. You see we have fallen for this sweet puppy and only the best would do.

I E-mailed a few folks asking them to think of friends who might cherish and dote on a spectacular little dog. One of the ladies who helps me with air transports of foster dogs E-mailed back, that she knew the perfect spot - with her! She had said that she was waiting to look for a buddy for her rat terrier pup when I had talked with her recently so I thought she was joking. I didn't even respond until the next morning when she E-mailed again and said "I was serious. Should I fill out an application now?" I got so excited that I had to call my husband to let him know the good news.

So probably next week sometime he will be heading to his new home, complete with kids and another rescued rat terrier who is still young enough that he will be overjoyed to have a partner in crime, so to say. The adoption coordinator has already given the application a pass, as have I as the foster parent, so all that is left is the home visit, which should go great.

Peanut will be neutered Monday in Tacoma and I think the home visit will be Wednesday and I'm guessing that all the paperwork will be done by Thursday (because our applications team is just that good!)

Whenever I'm sure that one dog is going home I start working on getting another dog that is on New Rattitude's urgent list pulled and transported to WA. Right now I'm working with the California team who has 8-9 rat terriers that are considered to be in danger of euthanization at this point. As soon as I have more details I'll be sure to post about the next foster.

Franny and Peanut updates

Well, it was a bit of a disappointing day. Franny had an awesome application and today was the day that she was going to go home. We had agreed to do a short trial just to make sure that she got along with her new furry siblings. Well, when her new mom came to pick her up Franny and one of the dogs, Dudley, took a distinct disliking to each other.

I've seen this happen before for the first 15 minutes or so when there are territorial issues and the dogs are still checking each other out. We let the dogs off leash in the back yard and several times Franny full out attacked the sweet little rat terrier boy. I've seen her be snippy with other dogs at the pet store but never have I seen her full on start fights. It was pretty traumatic for little Dudley as Franny is much heftier than he is. She does fine with Frodo and Tilly but I think she will definitely need to go to a home where none of the resident dogs have alpha tendencies. Tilly and Frodo are about as omega as you get so Franny doesn't sense a challenge with them and gets along with them fine.

Peanut went to the vet this morning for his distemper vaccination booster. As usual everyone was in love with him and he charmed the staff when he escaped into the back area of the vets when the vet opened the door to the exam room. He made sure he ran around back there and gave all the vet techs kisses before he let the vet catch him and bring him back to the room for his vaccination. He is now 9 pounds, 4 ounces and is about 15 weeks old. I just got his information to the New Rattitude pet publicists, who list the fosters on petfinder.com and adoptapet.com so he should start to have some application rolling in soon.

Calendar Contest at New Rattitude - LAST DAY!

Oh my gosh! I can't believe that I forgot to mention the calendar contest at New Rattitude. The fundraising team is putting together a rat terrier calendar that we will be selling. You can submit photos of your rat terrier for the contest: $2 for one photo or $5 for three.

HURRY! THE LAST DAY TO SUBMIT A PHOTO IS TOMORROW, 9/30!

For info on how to submit and a photo release form go to New Rattitude's fundraising Webpage for the full details.

Each of the winners of the 12 chosen photos will receive a copy of the calendar, plus bragging rights that you dog is a star!

PS: Don't forget to keep voting for New Rattitude Washington on The Animal Rescue Site!

Goobery Peanut

Poor Peanut's kennel cough turned into a full blown upper respiratory infection and Troy spent 2 1/2 hours waiting for an appointment at the vets on Saturday so that Peanut could get some antibiotics. He's now taking Clavamox and we are starting to see a change.

The little guy is just loaded with snot, though. He sleeps on his little curly tail and in the morning it has turned from white to crusty green. He needs fresh bedding daily thanks to the boogers and often he will have strands of green snot adorning his snout, thanks to a recent sneeze.

In spite of the cold he is full of puppy energy and loves to run around the back yard and to fetch toys that are thrown to him. I brought home some new squeaky toys from the store for him and he is enjoying flipping them around his ex-pen.

Currently the poor little guy is still quarantined in an ex-pen in the rec room to keep him separate from the rest of the pack. I am looking forward to introducing him to the other dogs and letting him and Frodo chase each other in the back yard.

Franny

We've had a few days to get to know Franny now and she is quite a character. What a great little dog - energetic without being hyper, snugly without being needy. She's getting along great with Frodo and Tilly but probably wouldn't do well with a strongly alpha female in the house.

Franny is a puppymill rescue and because of that she has her quirks. If she feels cornered she will roll on her back and snap at you if you try to reach her. Because of this she shouldn't be in a house with young kids. She's especially touchy if she's been napping and is woken up by a human. We are working on this and as she gets to know us and trust us it isn't as much of an issue.

Anyhow, that's the latest on sweet Franny.

Peanut and Franny

The two newest dogs have arrived! They flew in yesterday morning from Chicago and are doing great.

Peanut is 12 weeks old and a smart little guy. He seems to be house-training himself! He does have kennel cough and so right now he has to hang out in the rec-room in an ex-pen until he is feeling better. He has plenty of puppy energy and a big appetite so he's not too sick.

He's going to be a big rat terrier. At twelve weeks he's already nine pounds so he will likely be around 20-25# full size. He's a beautiful little purebred tri-color with a very sweet temperament. Some lucky family is going to get quite a special dog.

Franny was transferred to us from another foster home that was needing to lighten their foster load. She's a type B rat terrier (shorter type sometimes called Teddy Roosevelt terriers) and is quite a character. She was part of a puppy mill bust earlier this year, but it was thought that she was one of the house dogs so she doesn't seem to have the temperament issues that you can have in mill dogs.

She has packed on the pounds and is on a doggy weight loss plan right now. Once she's slim and trim I'm guessing she'll be 12-15#. She loves to run around and play chase with Frodo and seemed to enjoy her 1 mile walk last night.